The Board of GNP+ gathered for its annual meeting immediately following the 2016 International AIDS Conference that took place in Durban, South Africa this past July. During the meeting important transformative decisions were made to revamp the governance structure of the GNP+. These changes will put GNP+ in a better position to take advantage of the changing political and funding landscape of the AIDS response.

With the HIV response and the funding landscape changing, GNP+ consulted with allies, partners and other civil society leaders to review its position as a Global Network. Supporting the development of new leadership for the HIV movement through the LIVING 2016 Positive Leadership Summit was already an expression of this new GNP+ position.

Some of the most significant decisions made during the Board meeting were:

The governance will be restructured. The current Board of Directors structure will be changed to become a Supervisory Board.

Board members will no longer be appointed by regional networks but will be selected through an application process focused on the skills needed for an effective Board of Directors.

GNP+ will become a membership based organisation.

Explorations will start to increase partnership with other (international) networks of people living with HIV to share structures and reduce costs.

The full summary of decisions has been shared with major partners. You will find the official communique below.

Acknowledgements

In the first half of 2016, four Board Members resigned after their terms expired. We would like to express our gratitude to Anna Zakowicz (Europe, former co-chair), Bertha Sefu (Anglophone Africa), Nicolas Ritter (Francophone Africa) and Arthur Lim (Asia Pacific, Treasurer) for all their input, support and activism for a better HIV response.